I thought the way the container system works, is that the same containers are shipped back and forth between countries, reloaded for each trip. It seems like a big point of making them of a standardized size, is to support this. They're probably extremely durable. It doesn't seem to make sense to keep making new containers unless goods to be shipped exceeds volume capacity of existing container inventory.

At least a certain amount of contamination that containers sustain could probably be eliminated with better shipping standards.

^ well to some extent, but China mostly imports bulk raw materials from the US, not finished goods... they make most of the world's crap right now.

A lot of shipping containers are certainly used in interstate travel, and trade in N/S America, Europe, etc... but you could probably steal a couple dozen containers from the Port of Portland and they'd never notice.

Taller buildings, more people, more businesses, fewer cars. That’s the aim of a proposal that would rezone North Interstate Avenue over the next 10 months and test the city’s goal of transit-oriented development along major transit corridors.

Acting at the request of the Portland Development Commission, which oversees the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area, the Portland Planning Bureau has drafted a new zoning plan intended to realize a vision for the street created while the Interstate MAX Yellow Line was being planned.

The strip’s sluggish economy, limited housing and ill-fitting zoning all provide opportunities for the new land-use rules along Interstate between North Greeley Avenue and Columbia Boulevard.

The PDC wants new rules to put people closer to the Yellow Line to boost commerce, encourage walking and use of public transportation and allow for denser housing.

The proposal – now being considered by the Interstate Light Rail Corridor Zoning Project Community Advisory Group, put together by the planning bureau – would increase building heights along most of Interstate Avenue, allowing up to nine stories near MAX stations. It encourages mostly retail businesses topped by housing and discourages auto-related business.

As officials brace for future population growth in Portland, Interstate Avenue will be the test case for a policy that aims to house the most people along MAX lines.

Similar plans in the Gateway area along the Red Line, and along other areas of the MAX light rail, are expected to follow.

So far, controversy has stayed at bay. Although the advisory group weighing neighborhood concerns against business and development interests has played a key role in crafting new rules, few others have seen the plan.

Shooting for a public unveiling in October and public testimony in November, the advisory group will meet twice more to resolve its toughest problems.

Among them: how to best place tall buildings in existing neighborhoods, balance density on both sides of Interstate Avenue and create transit-friendly zoning without causing problems for existing businesses.

Lawrence Nath at Pooja International, a market that imports spices, grains and juice, said the proposed new zoning on Interstate will benefit business owners who want to develop retail stores with residential units on top. His family recently paid to rezone its Interstate Avenue lot to erect a new building topped with residential units.

“It’s what we were looking for and the kind of business we’re looking for on Interstate,” Nath said. “If all of the zoning changes on this side of Interstate, it benefits growth for businesses, it’s going to attract more people and maybe it will invite more resources for people.”

Some homeowners are more cautious, however.

Amy Altenberger, who represents the Overlook neighborhood in the advisory group, said the prospect of tall buildings looms large in neighborhoods, where many feel the nine-story height limit will be too tall to abut single-family homes.

“It’s a residential neighborhood currently; it feels residential. You have a lot of people concerned it will lose that,” Altenberger said.
Each side is different

The last time the area was rezoned was 14 years ago, before Interstate Avenue was chosen as the route for the light-rail line. As a result, the current zoning does not allow the most dense development where the City Council wants it.

The last plan, called the Albina Community Plan, came at a time when no one knew for sure where light rail might land.

It plopped an anything-goes zone – one that allows the same mix of high-density housing, manufacturing and commerce now in use in Portland’s Pearl District – next to Interstate 5 east of Interstate Avenue between Mason and Emerson streets, where fewer property owners lived in their homes and property was less desirable.

In a fit of interest in housing, the Albina Community Plan also rezoned much of Interstate Avenue as residential. Along the old highway route to Washington – still dotted with neon signs advertising food and lodging for travelers – motels and businesses alike were converted to residential in 1993.

Today those patterns work against city goals and existing property owners. Some business owners have been forced to spend thousands of dollars changing their zoning just to expand existing operations.

Developers planning the mixed-use buildings that the PDC now advocates also can’t move ahead without applying for zoning changes.

“We’re getting a lot of folks who want to locate their businesses here, but they’re not finding the zoning to open up their shops,” said Kevin Cronin, the PDC’s senior project coordinator for Interstate Avenue rezoning.

Officials at work on the plan also want to address the basic inequities between the east and west sides of Interstate Avenue created by the Albina Community Plan.

At the time of the plan’s crafting, more west-side property owners lived in their homes and opposed zoning changes, while east-side homes mostly were rentals, many of them blighted, and residents there offered little resistance.

“A lot of these apartments that were just these awful, end-of-life, drug-infested apartments in the ’80s have been ‘condo-ized,’ and now they’re quite desirable,” said Doug Hartman, a real estate agent who also serves in the advisory group.

Properties on the west side of Interstate Avenue are likely to see the most change in the next 10 months as officials work to balance both sides of the street.

In the current proposal, new zoning for Interstate Avenue would allow more retail and commercial land on both sides of the road and calls for high-density housing on top of retail stores near MAX stations.

If land is redeveloped under the proposed rules, parcels within 1,000 feet of the MAX could build up to 100 feet tall, or nine stories high. Farther than 1,000 feet from the MAX, high-density parcels would be limited to six stories.

In between station areas, tall buildings would be interspersed with commercial zones or lower-density housing – buildings between four and six stories high. Near Overlook Park, new zoning would allow Kaiser Permanente room to grow.
Some sense a fishbowl

Altenberger, from the Overlook neighborhood, said homeowners near Interstate Avenue are concerned tall buildings will bring a new way of life to the area, one that compromises its residential feel and people’s privacy in their homes.

“I think a lot of homeowners are feeling like they’d be living in a fishbowl, especially those that back right up to those lots,” Altenberger said.

Altenberger said while change also is exciting – she looks forward to new projects – she also wants Interstate Avenue to stay funky, look attractive, retain some open space and stay family-friendly.

Parents, she said, worry that incoming singles likely to lodge in high-density housing will drive the business market as it develops, making it less friendly for families.

As neighborhood groups weigh in on changes, officials in the Portland Planning Bureau in charge of drafting the rezoning plan still are debating whether to allow the tall buildings to sit a full block west of Interstate Avenue.

The alternative would be to cut off tall buildings halfway through the block, where most commerce ends now.

Also being debated is whether to change the zoning of single-family homes that would abut those tall buildings, to create a future transition zone.

In the zone, more rowhouse-style developments would be allowed and buildings could stand one story taller than residences, which can be three stories high.

While city officials look west to add density, there also is disagreement as to whether high-density residential zoning also should line east-west streets like Rosa Parks Way (formerly North Portland Boulevard) and Killingsworth Street between Denver and Interstate avenues.

High-density zoning also is on the table for Ainsworth Court, a low-income housing development on Ainsworth Street.
Changes are blessing, curse

For business owners along Interstate today, new zoning is both a blessing and a curse. Those who have weathered current zoning rules, like the owners of Pooja International, say changes that encourage more development are a benefit.

But because new zoning aims to reduce auto use, auto-related businesses like gas stations and repair shops appear to be falling into the losers column.

PDC’s Cronin said new zoning could eliminate some of Interstate Avenue’s many gas stations in favor of housing. If their zoning were to change, the stations could stay in place but would be unable to remodel or expand. Those who pay for it ultimately may change their zoning by petitioning the city for a waiver.

Vicious Cycle paid $7,000 for a zoning variance in its last location on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, after Barton learned from city officials that the old BMW repair shop she leased had been zoned residential.

Now, she worries rezoning on Interstate could have the same effect on her business, which is again being eyed for retail topped by housing.

“What it does is completely eliminate the chance that small businesses will thrive,” Barton said. “Doesn’t someone drive down the street and look and see that it’s commercial?”

Cronin said officials want to hear more about business concerns and also want input from longtime residents. The PDC plans a mailer soon, and an open house is set for Nov. 3.

“We just want to get the word out that this project is going on. Despite our best efforts, we’re not getting very many phone calls or e-mails,” he said.

The PDC gave a quick nod today for a new headquarters for the Miracles Club on NE MLK Blvd. It's a technical, but critical step for the deal. The Miracles Club, a nonprofit that helps addicts, needs a new home because it's long time spot on MLK and Mason is headed for redevelopment. The club, along with developer Guardian Management, bought land just up the road on MLK at 4218 NE MLK. They plan a project with space for Miracles on the first floor and 30 to 40 affordable apartments above. But the deal has a sizable financing gap. That's what brought them to PDC today.

The land had been outside the Oregon Convention Center urban renewal area. That meant the PDC couldn't subsidize the project. The PDC's action today expanded the urban renewal boundaries and opened the door for the city to help get the thing built.

Ross Cornelius, Guardian's development projects manager, says the deal is roughly $11 million and, conservatively, has a financing gap of $3 million. "It'd be great if it'd be $3 million," he says.

So what's all this mean? City Commissioner Dan Saltzman is behind the deal. He made a rare appearance before the PDC board Wednesday to show his support. And the PDC, given that City Hall can control its spending, is likely to be there for Miracles and Guardian.

Cornelius says they hope to be under construction in fall or winter 2008.

That's impressive for an untested developer with a $4.3 million condominium project in construction on an untested stretch of Northeast Portland.

Mackenzie broke ground earlier this year on Graham Street Lofts, a 12-unit complex being constructed on a former parking lot that fronts Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Northeast Graham Street. Mackenzie bought the property in 1991 and has operated her practice there ever since.

The Graham Street effort is a bold project that has the attention of the development community, said Sara King, manager of the Portland Development Commission's Convention Center urban renewal district. The district runs along MLK in front of the project.

King said Mackenzie is providing a useful demonstration of the market potential for development on the boulevard, which is in an area devoid of new developments -- especially for high-density residential projects.

Portland Development Commission officials are interested in developing a live-work project on property it owns in the neighborhood.

The four-story building contains traditional one-floor units and four two-story penthouses. But at ground level, Mackenzie is connecting her building with busy MLK by creating units with space for offices or small shops in the front and living quarters in the back.

Mackenzie believes the time is right to bring something new to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where she has had her practice for more than a decade.

"It seemed like the right time and stuff is starting to change on the avenue," Mackenzie said.

The loft project is two blocks north of the Nike Factory Store along a stretch of MLK. The stately American State Bank building is one block to the south. Once one of the largest minority-owned banks in the region, it closed several years ago. The building itself is under contract to a buyer who plans to remake it into a retail center, said a Melvin Mark broker involved in the transaction.

Joanne Stone, a broker with Wright Commercial Real Estate services, is representing Graham Street Lofts and several other properties, including vacant lots, along MLK.

The southernmost 10 blocks of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard are gaining more attention, she said. Newcomers are installing pizza restaurants, a hot dog eatery and, in the coming weeks, a new wine bar.

Mackenzie said she understands her project is viewed as a test case for Martin Luther King. While others wait to see how it does before committing to their projects, she's already designing her next undertaking, Ruby's Tower.

Ruby's Tower will contain 14 small condominiums and will be built on the lot adjacent the Graham Street Lofts.

If all goes according to plan, Ruby's Tower will represent a major local debut for Apex Construction Systems Inc., a local startup attempting to commercialize construction blocks made from cement dust, recycled polystyrene and binders.

That seems like a very small scale development for a Trammel Crow. I always thought of them as a suburban/city center office and mini-mall developer. Urban infill doesn't jive with my perception of them.

Hollywood is also my guess for next happening area. It'd be more upscale than Mississippi, Alberta or Hawthorne though.

Other than the cupola and the overly-reflective glass, I like this project. Plus it has an impeccable mission. I'm especially excited about the new Marco Fife restaurant.

Vanport Square Near Complete

By Lee Perlman/The Portland Observer
24-Hour Fitness next in line for major MLK development

"At this moment, things are looking great," Ray Leary says.

The reference is to the local African-American leader's Vanport Square, a major development of minority-owned business in the heart of northeast Portland's black community.

The first store coming to an entirely remolded block at 5225 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. will be the beauty supply outlet Living Color, set to open this month. Fourteen other commercial spaces in the block's 30,000 square foot structure have been sold and are expected to open by the end of December.

In addition, demolition has begun on what will be the site of Phase II of Vanport Square: the Pacific Northwest's first Magic Johnson 24-Hour Fitness facility, a signature sports fitness endeavor owned by the former Los Angeles Lakers star. It will take up an entire block north of Alberta Street on MLK with two gymnasiums and full line of athletic equipment.

Other businesses waiting to open in the first phase are Marco Shaw, owner and head chef of Fife restaurant, who will establish his new Hard Shell restaurant in Vanport; Alem Grebrehiwat, owner of the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant; Edwardo Norell, who will move his Norell Design bilingual sign business from his garage to Vanport; Laurie Cary Design; Nghi Tran's State Farm office; C.P.A. Rick Harris; and Hung Kim's Living Color.

In a pioneering move, most of the new businesses will also own their sections of building, making Vanport Phase I, a commercial condominium.

Vanport Square is a triumph for Leary and his partner, northeast Portland resident Jeana Woolley, but a hard-fought one. When the Portland Development Commission selected them to develop the site in 1999, they were part of a development team that featured the Gerding-Edlen Co., creator of the Pearl District's five square block Brewery Blocks project, and one of the city's largest and most prolific developers.

The original plans were for a 500,000 square foot mega-project that included rental housing, town homes, retail and office, and a 60,000 square foot grocery. At the time, Leary wasn't even an independent agent; he was an employee of Adidas, for whom he had helped an outlet store on Northeast MLK and Alberta Street.

But when no major grocery or other anchor could be found, Gerding-Edlen dropped out. When Leary and Woolley secured a calling center to occupy the space, neighbors who had bought into the original concept felt betrayed; not only did they oppose the new plan, but some of they called for Leary and Woolley to be replaced as developers.

Leary defended himself and his plan, only to see the calling center anchor drop away. The PDC granted several extensions of the development deadline, but they became visibly uneasy about the project's lack of progress and the agency's commitment of $10 million in cash and tax credits.

It was the lure of the commercial-condominium concept that finally allowed the project to succeed, even without a major retail anchor.

"It was the chance for ownership that was the catalyst," Leary says. "People will happily pay to own their own space at a rate they would balk at to rent that space." Even so, it wasn't an overnight success.

"Each deal was a challenge in and of itself" he says. "We had to fight financial constraints and politics. Vanport used all nine of its lives."

That it succeeded was due not just to Leary and Woolley's perseverance and the validity of the concept, but the loyalty of their backers.

"It comes down to relationships," Leary says. "We were able to establish champions that saw this as vital to PDC's mission and jumped into our corner. We also had buyers who signed on five or six years ago and stayed with us every step of the way."

The community and the city have just begun to realize the potential for this sort of business self-ownership, Leary says.

Commercial rents on MLK are now running in "the high teens" per square foot. Leary said in order to make major redevelopment possible, it would have to climb to about $25 per square foot, "and we're not there yet." But they are getting closer; the Magic Johnson Fitness Center is paying the same rate for its space that it would pay in other parts of the city.

He said ownership opportunities are a premium that can increase the value of development projects.

"This will be a catalyst, not just for small, infill development, but for larger projects. It will bring privately financed development to MLK. You'll see projects that are attractive enough to lure regional and national companies," Leary says.

Would Leary have signed on to the Vanport Project back in 1999 if he had foreseen what eight years would bring?

Smiling ruefully he says, "I'm glad I didn't know what was coming. The converse is that ignorance kicked into perseverance and that eventually led me to opportunities I'd only thought about."

Legacy Emanuel eyes major expansionProject includes a building, more beds and a garage
Portland Business Journal - by Robin J. Moody Business Journal staff writer

Despite a track record of financial struggles, officials at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center are exploring a massive expansion that would add 67 new beds and a 500-car parking garage to the campus.

The hospital, 2801 N. Gantenbein, is located in a neighborhood that houses many low-income individuals. Its trauma center and pediatric hospitals serve many uninsured or poor patients from out of the area. Charity care and bad debt totaled 9.5 percent of Legacy Emanuel's revenue in 2007.

The proposed expansion, which must still be approved by Legacy's board of directors, includes:

* A new 225,000-square-foot building where the emergency center parking lot now sits.
* A remodel of 100,000 square feet of existing space.
* A 500-car parking garage.
* 21 pediatric care beds and a remodel of existing rooms so that all pediatric patients have single-occupancy rooms. It would also add capacity for 46 new adult beds.

Legacy Emanuel provides cancer care, a Level 1 trauma center, emergency services, neurosurgery, a burn-victim unit, surgical services and other lines of business. Legacy Emanuel Children's Hospital is located on the third and fourth floors of the main hospital.

With 401 staffed beds, the hospital is among the three largest in Portland.

"The hospital is frequently at capacity to provide care to both its adult and pediatric communities," said Legacy Health System interim CEO Pam Vukovich.

Legacy's board of directors has not approved the expansion, but has approved gathering information for the project and reviewing potential designs with architects. The project is not subject to approval under certificate of need, a regulatory process for certain health care construction projects, because plans involve expansion on an existing hospital campus.

Research on the project is expected to continue for several months, and Legacy leaders estimate they'll receive design recommendations and cost estimates in early 2008.

The move comes as the health system is recovering from losses incurred in the wake of opening Legacy Salmon Creek, a new $275 million hospital in Vancouver. The health system's consolidated operating income was $28.5 million for the year ended March 31, 2007, compared with a loss of $9 million the prior year.

Emanuel also carries a growing burden of uncompensated care.

"Because of that it's difficult to have a profitable hospital," Vukovich told the Business Journal in August 2007.

Prior to construction of Legacy Salmon Creek, about 30 percent of Vancouver residents came to Portland to get medical care. Health care experts say many more of those patients are now staying in Washington, reducing volumes in Portland hospitals.

"The business case for this will need to be compelling. It's not immediately obvious that there's a need for additional pediatric and adult beds in the Portland area," said Bill Kramer, former CFO at Kaiser Permanente and principal at Kramer Health Care Consulting.

"In that part of town, population growth is minimal and Legacy would need to draw patients from other parts of the state and from competitors like Doernbecher" Children's Hospital at OHSU, Kramer added.

Legacy Emanuel is slightly busier than the average Portland hospital, with an occupancy rate of 69.48 percent in 2006, compared with 71.8 percent in 2005. The average 2006 occupancy rate for Portland-area hospitals was 66 percent in 2006.

How the hospital would finance the expansion is an open question. The health system's recent Vancouver expansion drained cash from the coffers, and bond-rating agencies Moody's Investment Services and Standard & Poor's both downgraded Legacy's long-term bond rating in 2006. The Moody's bond rating has not fully recovered, and a lower bond rating may make borrowing difficult.

Legacy Emanuel Hospital in 2007 reported net income of $7.9 million on operating revenue of $452.6 million, compared with a net loss of $1.1 million in 2006 on operating revenue of $416.8 million. The hospital was founded in 1912 by the Lutheran Church.

Let's hope that they finally fill in some of those empty lots they own. They snapped up a lot of property, and leveled everything on the lots just about. Then most of the lots just... sat like that. I think it was in the 60's or 70's that they did that. IIRC, Emanual was going to expand back then, and they got the city to help, via urban renewal procedures, with buying, condemning, and leveling the blocks. Then whoops! The hospital ran out of money to do it, but kept the empty lots.

I read somewhere one of the famous Jazz clubs back in the day was on one of the Emanual lots. It still stands, but is padlocked. What a shame, because the area was part of the old lively Jazz scene (the other part being in Albina).

__________________
Portland absolutely needs: MAX lines to the SW, Vancouver, Oregon City. New Willamette and Columbia bridges, and a new tallest!

Yeah, they basically used the federal gov't to steal the land from the local black community, demolish a bunch of beautiful historic buildings (the dome in Dawson Park is from the top of the building that stood at Russell and Williams *see pic below*), and then the expansion fell through.

I think they should turn over the blocks between Williams and Vancouver around Russell --sell it back without profit to rep's of the local community, like the guy who developed Vanport Square-- and issue a written apology, which has never been done. They destroyed a thriving business district with jazz clubs (where the races, notoriously, mixed freely), a Black Panther health clinic, grocers, etc, etc, for absolutely nothing.

A hospital expansion brings big bucks and lots of jobs to the neighborhood. If done right, it will seriously raise the values of the surrounding properties and create development opportunities.

One thing you and I will probably agree on is that the PDC needs to be spending most of its urban renewal money in places like North Williams, MLK, Lents, etc. The Vanport Square developer in my opinion has done a fantastic job. History has been really shitty to Portland's African American community (as well as its Jewish and Italian communities), and making new opportunities to be build community is the way to make it right.

That picture of Russell is amazing. I had no idea how built up that area used to be. The PDC does have a dubious history. I think investment should be taking place in East Portland (East of 82nd) not North Portland. North Portland is lost to gentrification and will redevelop on its own. East Portland, however, is in the process of turning into a horrible ghetto.

I think the hospital can expand (which I'm not opposed to, although the location of the parking garage is key) and give back the blocks north of Russell between Williams and Vancouver. Those blocks seem much more suited to mixed-use development anyways, as opposed to the ones closer to the freeway. It won't happen, of course.

I agree with both of you about urban renewal money. East Portland needs help fast. Parts of N/NE still need PDC help, too, though. Only recently has the PDC come through on its promises to MLK neighborhoods, and Vanport Square is the only project that looks to be immediately successful.